A Diary From Dixie by Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut.
    

A Diary From Dixie.

February 24th.–Friends came to make taffy and stayed the livelong day. They played cards. One man, a soldier, had only two teeth left in front and they lapped across each other. On account of the condition of his mouth, he had maintained a dignified sobriety of aspect, though he told some funny stories. Finally a story was too much for him, and he grinned from ear to ear. Maggie gazed, and then called out as the negro fiddlers call out dancing figures, “Forward two and cross over!” Fancy our faces. The hero of the two teeth, relapsing into a decorous arrangement of mouth, said: “Cavalry are the eyes of an army, they bring the news; the artillery are the boys to make a noise; but the infantry do the fighting, and a general or so gets all the glory.”

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